The Tom Dougherty Blog

Let me be frank. When I first learned about the site years ago, my cynicism went wild. At the time, I was irked by already successful film directors seeking funds for projects or an already professional band looking for $30,000 to record a new album. It all felt a tad bogus to me and not supporting those that Kickstarter was intended to back.

Then something changed.

I visited the site again a few years later and took the time to read up on a whole bunch of projects. My intrigue grew.

For those unaware of what Kickstarter is, it’s a website that accepts and promotes crowd-funded projects. Participants wishing to have their projects funded select a certain time frame to promote, choose an amount of money they wish to raise, and do a little bit of self-promotion (advertisements, project details, etc.). Should enough sponsors back a project in that pre-selected time period, the participant gets the funds. Once funded, particular obligations must be fulfilled for sponsors.

Coming around on Kickstarter.

Dollars speak loudly on Kickstarter, as they represent the interest of the community. For example, about a month back, I wrote on the Pebble watch, which initially launched on Kickstarter. Just last week, the folks at Pebble announced its new watch, the Pebble Time (a colorized smartwatch that functions on a timeline-centric operating system), on Kickstarter. Since the proposal, Pebble has garnered $11 million. And there is still 25 days to go in the campaign. So far, this is the most backed project ever on the site.

Perhaps my change of heart happened because I’ve become a fan of the TV show Shark Tank. On the show, five investors, or “the Sharks” as they’re called, listen to inventors and consider whether or not to assist in the funding of the project. The show is addictive. I’ve become quite fond of start-ups and observe the genesis of brands and the plethora of exceptional ideas around us.

Kickstarter allows for that as well. Now, I’m no longer a skeptic, but rather a backer of multiple projects that I believe in. I’m a mini-shark, and I love that.

Backing Kickstarter projects was last modified: March 3rd, 2015 by Tom Dougherty

When Apple first introduced the iPad, it had a brilliant line in unveiling it: “You already know how to use it.”

It was marvelous because it exemplified Apple’s brand promise of simplicity, and it also was true. The iPhone had already shot to the top of the list of smartphones, so most of us did know how to use the iPad even if we weren’t aware of it yet.

That approach has taken a similar shape with the new campaign from Kraft Mac & Cheese. As adults, we know the mixture (usually just macaroni, butter and that ghastly cheese dust) isn’t exactly the healthiest food we could eat. Kids might love it, but we know better.

Or do we?

Kraft’s ads end with the line: “You know you love it.” And, damn, if that doesn’t hit right at home. We, as adults, have convinced ourselves that Kraft Mac & Cheese is disgusting. But there is a secret part of us – maybe remembering when we were kids – that would like to eat a spoonful of it if it was recently made. Secretly, without admitting it openly, we do love it.

That’s the skill of that tagline. It feeds on a shared belief and does it in a way that says that Kraft knows it’s a secret.

The ads target adults, which may seem like a losing strategy. I’m not sure most adults would buy Kraft Mac & Cheese for themselves. What the ads do accomplish, however, is that, because “you know you love it,” you have permission to get it for the ones who openly love it: Kids.

I’m not sure if the one spot with Estelle Harris (of Seinfeld fame) has the right tone. (It seems a little mean.) But the spot with the mother doing the airplane trick with the baby hits the right feel.

Like most big brands, Kraft will probably only run the spots for a relatively short time. “You know you love it” is used as an advertising tagline rather than a real brand theme. So any increased sales are likely to be temporary.

But it’s always heartening for me to see a brand that will actually build its marketing based on a belief.

I say ironic because when W.K. Kellogg first founded his company, it was to give consumers a healthier and more convenient alternative to the leftover meats they were eating in the early 1900s. Now, with Kellogg’s top-selling cereal being Frosted Flakes, the cereals are less healthy and convenient than simply grabbing a yogurt or breakfast bar on the way out the door.

Fewer and fewer people are having this for breakfast.

What is interesting about the Bloomberg article, which tells the inside story of Kellogg cereals, is how much Kellogg has lost its way as a brand. You see, brands aren’t just marketing endeavors. They are also the compasses that direct everything you do, from product development to marketing to what you stand for (and who your customer represents).

In Kellogg’s case, it went so far into the unhealthy, sugar cereals that it got on the wrong side of history. It didn’t help that it tried to enter the health market by buying Kashi – then transforming the brand into Kashi Chocolate Almond Butter cookies and even Kashi frozen pizzas.

Talk about not understanding the brand.

But the problems of the cereal companies are larger than how to handle its individual brands. What Kellogg and its competitors (such as General Mills, which has had tremendous success with its Cheerios brand) need to consider is what they should own.

Right now, they own that spot where dying brands like Radio Shack, Blockbuster and others were several years ago. They look archaic and completely out of step.

What they should own is breakfast. We’ve seen a few attempts at it, as referenced in our study. But with each passing day, fast food restaurants and other outlets are owning that daypart and no cereal company is going to out-product its way out of the dilemma.

If one of those cereal companies wants to know how to turn around its fortunes, call me.

What Kellogg cereals (and others) need to do was last modified: February 27th, 2015 by Tom Dougherty

I have a confession to make. I like to collect things and I’ll go through obsessive stages where it’s either collecting ties with elephants on them or socks with unusual designs. (eBay is my best friend.)

Over the last year or so, I’ve also been collecting old pocket watches that go as far back as the 1800s. I find them fascinating and feel they are a piece of history.

They are also a style. A fashion, if you will. It’s from that perspective that the first marketing for the Apple Watch is taking the right approach. It’s not about functionality. It’s about fashion.

For the moment, the marketing is subtle. Model Candice Swanepoel is on the cover of Self magazine next month wearing an Apple Watch. There will also be a 12-page spread in an upcoming issue of Vogue.

The Apple Watch as a style.

Why is this the right approach? Because, let’s face it, the reason any of us (including grey-haired men with pocket watches) wear a watch is because of how it looks. We live in an era in which finding the correct time or any other piece of information is right on our phone. I have children who don’t wear a watch because they check the time on their phone. Even if you do wear a watch, you most likely chose it because of how it looks on you.

The Apple Watch is a cool device, like many other Apple devices. But to make the Apple Watch a success, Apple had to understand the reasons why people buy the watches they do.

That’s where fashion comes in. Right now, the approach is feminine but I can imagine Apple expanding that reach through a fashion reflection of other types of customers. The runner. The cool male. (Think Matthew McConaughey in the Lincoln ads.)

It’s the right way to go. Be an aspirational reflection of the customer and understand what drives the market.

If only other brands understood that approach, there would be more brands that were actually stealing share.

The Apple Watch takes the right approach was last modified: February 26th, 2015 by Tom Dougherty

Target just announced that it is going to offer free shipping on all orders over $25. Target’s free shipping offer does nothing more than make Target look like everyone else.

I tend to buy things off eBay and compare costs to items with free shipping. Around the big shopping holidays, retailers offer free shipping on nearly everything.

Target’s free shipping won’t make much of a difference.

But Amazon Prime still beats them all. Even at $99 a year, it is a deal and you get free shipping on as many orders as you care to make in a year and you get it in two days. Besides, what can I not get at Amazon that I can’t at Target?

I get that Target is trying to cast a wider net, but it’s actually a desperate move in the face of the competition. The reality is that the US customer, in particular, has been conditioned to free shipping. I think that it is already a table stake in the retail category any more. Retailers like Amazon have taught us that.

This isn’t news. It’s catch up. And this is precisely more of the same from a brand that once stood up to Walmart by offering something different and better. Now Target is just the same and the same.

Target’s free shipping plan is not a big deal was last modified: February 25th, 2015 by Tom Dougherty

I always find it interesting how the patterns of our life evolve into new patterns.

My job, as a brand guy, is to take notice of those patterns and ask why they exist in the first place.

And so, I have noticed a change in myself and habitual patterns, even when it comes to writing this blog. In the past, I would begin the day by scouring over a host of news websites: Huffington Post, Yahoo!, USA Today and the New York Times, to name a few. I read up on business happenings and connect myself to an idea within a relevant story to my business.

But now, things are different. My process matured into something new.

My new daily routine.

What happens when I find that story and need a little more info to tell it? That’s when I turn to the most reliable, self-curated news app I am aware of: Flipboard.

The app is an elegant, create-your-own news magazine. I can search any topic and a litany of articles from around the web are presented in a well-crafted “flipbook” about that topic.

This doesn’t leave me without the headlines. I can always check out the sites, “Daily Edition” or choose “news” as a topic choice.

Why did my blogging pattern change?

It’s simple. I wanted the ability to choose the news I wanted to help me tell the stories I wanted, and not have that process dictated for me.

Flipboard gave me that control.

Flipboard has changed this blog was last modified: February 24th, 2015 by Tom Dougherty

I’m sensing a trend when it comes to the Academy Awards, which gave its Best Picture award to Birdman last night. The Michael Keaton-starrer was about a former superhero actor who wants to be important, so he stages a play.

Two years ago, the winner was Argo, Ben Affleck’s opus about how a fake movie got a handful of Canadians out of Iran. And the year before, the winner was The Artist, a look at the silent movie era.

We can debate the merits of those three films, but one thing is clear. Like the rest of us, the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences like to see an aspirational version of themselves.

The Oscar goes to the movie about actors.

Sound familiar?

That sentiment, of course, is the first rule of having any winning brand. Your must be an aspirational, emotional reflection of the target audience that you are trying to reach.

Three times in the last four years, the Oscars chose to honor a film that is the best representation of themselves: An actor looking to redeem himself. A federal agent posing as a producer in a fake movie to save lives. An actor and actress standing on the cusp of a new art form.

These are what we call brand faces, what the reflection looks like when the target audiences looks at your brand.

There are certainly other reasons why some movies win and others don’t. Some are just better. Some promote a message the academy wants to promote. Some are seen as representative of the year.

But if recent history is any example, the academy members have been more sensitive to their relevancy in the world. It’s foolish to speculate why that emotion may run high (without quantitative research) and it may just because there have been three good (but not great) movies on the subject.

The lesson here, however, that winning brands are that emotional brand face. That’s why the Oscars celebrated Birdman.

The Oscars award a brand face was last modified: February 23rd, 2015 by Tom Dougherty

We all love breakfast. There’s no getting around it that eggs, coffee and whatever else you want to include in that category is like nectar of the gods to many of us.

That’s why I lament that there’s not a Denny’s restaurant in town. That’s hard to believe in a city with a population of more than 270,000 people. I mean, Denny’s has more than 1,500 locations in the US. You’d think it could find a place in Greensboro, NC. (It did have one, out in the outskirts, but it closed.)

But maybe there’s one hidden here because the restaurant chain is taking advantage of the newest trend in the industry: Fast casual.

Denny’s is coming from the other direction from the fast food restaurants that are moving up from fast to casual. Denny’s is coming down to fast from casual with its new concept called The Den.

Please come to Greensboro.

These fast-casual spots have been developed for college campuses and contract service providers (such as those in a large company’s cafeteria) but Denny’s plans on opening off-campus locations in the future. (It opened its first in San Diego recently.)

Denny’s is actually doing well, with same-store sales increasing nearly 5% for the fourth quarter, but opportunities in this category are few. In the fast food industry, chains have been aggressively attacking the breakfast daypart because lunch, dinner and late night are maxed out. (That’s why you see Taco Bell entering breakfast, for example.)

Denny’s has the permission to enter this fray because its bailiwick is breakfast. The Den will serve breakfast all day, something I’m sure is a hit on college campuses.

I’ve spoken a lot about brand permissions, what categories brands have permission to play in based on their equities. Denny’s has permission to play in this space because, even though it might claim otherwise, it is not so high class that consumers won’t see the transition as an emotional problem.

The issue is that the breakfast category is crowded. Everybody had entered that daypart or is planning on it. That means someone is going to lose and wonder where its next opportunity lies.

That’s the reason why fast food chains have gone fast casual, trying to make a better in-store experience rather than consumers just zipping through the drive-thru. (Studies have shown that you spend more if you go inside.)

My guess is that the Den, if properly marketed, will be a success but force out others entering the market. Now, if it can just enter the Greensboro market, I’ll be happy.

Denny’s to open up The Den was last modified: February 20th, 2015 by Tom Dougherty

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